


Among Thorns

by Realmer06



Series: Roses Trilogy [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, HP Next Generation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-10
Updated: 2013-06-10
Packaged: 2017-12-14 13:31:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 13,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/837413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Realmer06/pseuds/Realmer06
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two friends. Two families. One question. One fight. Three years of separation. When Rose and Scorpius are thrown together again, can they figure out what went wrong before it's too late to regain what they lost? And is that really what they want? (Part 1 of the Roses Trilogy, an offshoot of the Pieces Universe)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This story was originally written for katieay for the smrwficafest on LiveJournal. She asked for a post-Hogwarts hook-up with a dose of angst. This started with her saying, "Perhaps they both take jobs at the Ministry and bump into each other a lot." I took that literally and ran with it!
> 
> As always, thanks ever so to my betas HeidiBug731 and Vanime for wading through this monster and fixing everything I did wrong. Also, inspiration credit has to go to LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series (loosely) for the pattern of romance, and Diana Son's play Stop Kiss for the alternating time format.

Chapter One

* * *

" _Ron?" came a soft voice from the doorway across the hall. Ron Weasley's head snapped up, and he looked up at his mother's face poking out from behind the barely opened door._

" _Is she–" he tried to ask, but his voice was barely working. He scrambled to his feet, fearing the worst, but his pounding heart was quieted a little by the smile on his mother's face._

" _She's fine," Molly Weasley whispered. "It was touch and go for a while there, but she's going to be all right." Ron let out a shaky sigh that was almost a sob, closing his eyes tight._

" _And–?" he forced himself to ask, knowing his mother would know what he meant. She smiled again._

" _You have a fine, beautiful, healthy daughter, Ron. Would you like to come in and see her?" With a numb nod, he let his mother led him into the bedroom. His heart leapt into his throat at the sight of his wife – deathly pale, hair plastered to her forehead with sweat, lying limp on the bed – but even as he tried to swallow and calm his nerves, she opened her eyes and gave him an exhausted but coherent smile._

" _Come see your daughter, Ron," Hermione whispered, and only then did Ron note the bundle of blankets in his wife's arms. Silently, he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed and peered inside the blankets. A tiny face peered out, bright blue eyes looking curiously up at him, a dusting of dark red hair just visible above them._

 _Ron's breath came out in a shaky laugh. The infant – his_ daughter _– turned her head slightly and look up at him, those eyes bright and engaged. "Hermione," he breathed. "She's beautiful."_

_Hermione beamed, closing her eyes. "I want to call her Rose," she whispered. "I know we'd decided to name her after my mother, but I want to call her Rose."_

" _That's a beautiful name," Ron said, his eyes never leaving his daughter._

" _It's because of you and me," she continued, even as she gave herself over to sleep. "And how hard we had to work to get to this moment. I want her to . . . stand as proof that . . . the best and most . . . beautiful things in the world . . . come nestled . . . among thorns."_

_Ron smoothed the damp hair away from his wife's forehead and kissed her softly. Then he picked up his daughter, held her for the first time, and whispered, "Welcome to the world, Rosie."_

* * *

_Two lefts, a right, down the small flight of stairs, then right again, center passageway, and it's the third door on the left,_ twenty-year-old Rose Weasley thought to herself as she hurried through the crowded corridors of the Ministry's lower levels. Once she got to the Headquarters of the Auror Department, she'd have no trouble finding her uncle's office; it was just getting to the Auror wing from the International Liaison's Office that was the trouble.

She paused just long enough to shift the immense stack of parchment in her arms, concentrating on balancing on one high-heeled foot long enoughto accomplish this task without falling over. She was beginning to think the heels might have been a bad idea.

Today marked both the start of the summer and her first day as an intern in the International Liaison Office of the Ministry of Magic. Her first assignment was to take the immense stack of parchment to Auror Potter. She _could_ have used magic, but at the time of the assignment, it had seemed like such a _silly_ thing to whip out her wand for.

There were days when she wanted nothing more than to curse her mother for instilling the value of old fashioned, hard work. Today was one of those days.

The parchment scrolls settled more securely, she took off again, hurrying as fast as dignity and her shoes allowed her.

She stepped onto the landing at the bottom of the stairs and rounded the corner only to collide heavily with a rather large and solid human-shaped _something_. The impact sent her load flying, her wand clattering across the marble hall, and herself to the ground. Mortified, she hurried to pick herself up, scrambling around on the floor for her wand and her scrolls, speaking apologies over the person who, much to her dismay, had knelt beside her to pick up parchment, and was apologizing as well.

"Merlin, I'm so sorry, I –"

"No, it was my fault, I–"

"– wasn't watching where I was going –"

"– wasn't really paying attention –"

"– just in a hurry, it's my first day –"

"– hope you're all right?"

"Yes, thank you," Rose muttered, reaching for one of the last scrolls, only to have the man reach it first. As he handed it to her, she glanced up and got a good look at him and nearly dropped everything all over again. She knew those gray eyes. "Scorpius," she breathed, shocked to see him, of all people. She watched as shocked surprise flickered across his face, followed by a number of other emotions in rapid succession. When he offered a hand to help her to her feet, he still looked slightly stunned to see her.

"Rose," he said slowly. "Of all the people to . . . it's been –"

"Three years," she finished for him, her mind whirling. Why, _why_ Scorpius Malfoy, of all people –

"Al said you were traveling the world?" The tone of his voice was guarded, unreadable.

Rose swallowed and forced herself to respond coherently.

"Oh, I, uh, yes. With Ivanna Krum, a friend of mine. We, uh, took an extended World Tour."

"And now you're working at the Ministry?"

She nodded. "In the International Liaison's Office. I'm interning there." He shook his head appreciatively.

"That's a competitive program. You always did have to be the best, yeah?" He grinned before he could remember not to. He did remember halfway through, and ended up with a very odd look on his face instead. "Well, you're obviously headed somewhere, so I'll let you –"

"What are you doing down here?" she blurted out, immediately deepening the Weasley blush already stark against her sunburnt skin.

"I'm, uh, in the Auror program," he said slowly, not quite meeting her eyes. "Just finishing my final year. I'm surprised Al didn't tell you."

"Oh, well, I, uh, haven't really had a lot of time to chat in the past three years," she mumbled.

"I understand," he said. She thought she detected the hint of an edge to his voice, but it was so slight, she may have imagined it. _Do you?_ was the response in her head. Embarrassed and hoping that question didn't read on her face, she looked down at the ground as well as she could.

"Well, I should get back to work," Rose said awkwardly.

"Yeah," Scorpius nodded. "Yeah, me too." He handed her the last scroll, and there was an awkward moment where they each tried to step out of the other's way and succeeded only in dancing around the corridor. Finally, they got themselves sorted, and then he was gone around the corner.

She slumped against the wall of the corridor, trying to return her heart rate to normal speeds. Scorpius Malfoy, _here_ of all places! She hadn't seen or spoken to him in over three years, not since they'd left school, and now, of all the people in the Ministry for her to collide with –

She straightened and set off once more down the corridor, determined to put the encounter out of her mind.

* * *

_Two eleven-year-old cousins, each trying to pretend they weren't as nervous as they felt, fought their way with their trunks down the length of the train, trying to find a place to sit. The girl was nervously glancing back at each full compartment as she followed her cousin, trying to ignore the looks they were getting from the older students, which ranged from amusement to pity to indifference. She wasn't sure which was worse._

_"Al," she pleaded, "let's just go find James. Or Victoire would let us sit with her."_

_"Victoire's running the Prefect meeting," Al called back over his shoulder. "And I'm_ not _sitting with James," he said darkly. "Look, Rose! There's an empty one up here!"_

_But it wasn't empty, not quite. There was a young blonde boy sitting in it, curled up against the wall by the window, gazing out at the countryside streaming past. Rose recoiled._

_"I can't," she said. "Come on, Al, let's find somewhere else."_

_"Rose, there_ isn't _anywhere else!" Al said, exasperated. "Come on, I'm sure he'd let us sit with him, and I'm tired of dragging my trunk around the train!"_

_"No, I can't!" she insisted stubbornly._

_"Why_ not _?" Al asked her. Rose bit her lip._

_"Daddy told me not to." When Al just looked at her, she continued hurriedly. "It's the boy we saw at the station, and Daddy told me not to get friendly with him!" And she folded her arms stubbornly across her chest. She had her instructions._

_Al rolled his eyes. "Really, Rose?" he asked. She just raised her chin and looked away. Al sighed. "Look, I'm going in and sitting down. If you're so opposed to it,_ you _can go find James." And, true to his word, he slid the compartment door open and dragged his trunk inside. The blonde boy turned._

_"Al!" she hissed, but her cousin ignored her, leaving her with no real choice but to follow._

_"Hi!" he was saying. "I'm Al, and this is my cousin, Rose. Do you think we could sit with you?"_

_The blonde boy looked back and forth between them, then down at his hands. "I don't know," he muttered._

_"Why not?" Al asked, confused._

_"My dad said you probably wouldn't be very friendly to me, and so I should try to stay away from you," he said to the floor. Rage flew up in Rose, and she pushed past her cousin, hands on her hips._

_"And your dad knows everything, does he?" she demanded. The boy looked up sharply, frowning. "_ My _dad said I shouldn't be friendly with you, either, but that doesn't mean I'm going to listen to him!" And she glared her fiercest eleven-year-old glare at him._

_"I was taught to respect my elders," he said loftily._

_"And_ I _was taught to think for myself," she challenged. He opened his mouth in anger._

_"I can think for myself!" he insisted._

_"Prove it!" was Rose's response. The boy's eyes narrowed._

_"Fine! Come in and sit down!" he said angrily. "I'd be_ pleased _to share my compartment with you!"_

_"Fine!" Rose responded, throwing herself huffily into the seat across from him, arms crossed, looking toward the ceiling. The blonde boy held himself in a similar fashion. The silence in the compartment was heavy and tense for a few moments, and then Al began to laugh._

_Rose and the blonde boy stared at him, then at each other, seated in almost identical positions. They tried to glare at one another, but Al's laughter was too infectious, and they too began to smirk at the ridiculousness of what had just happened. Within moments, the entire compartment had dissolved into boisterous laughter._

* * *

She was home late that afternoon of her first day, sitting on her favorite stone bench in front of the entrance to the rose maze her mother was so proud of, before she let herself think about Scorpius Malfoy again. She could feel the color rising in her cheeks and the tips of her ears.

Their last meeting three years ago was still painfully fresh in her mind, and just thinking about it turned her into a tongue-tied, awkward mess and made her cheeks burn with shame. It was clear he hadn't forgotten it, either.

He hadn't been his normally eloquent self, that was for sure, and there was a quietness and a weight to him that certainly hadn't been there three years ago. That was her doing. She closed her eyes as she remembered the range of emotions that had flickered through his when he first saw her, before a wall had snapped into place behind them. Pain had been among those emotions . . .

And he was an Auror. Why hadn't she known? Her cousin and Scorpius were practically joined at the hip – why on earth hadn't Al said anything? Becoming an Auror had _not_ been Scorpius's plan the last time she'd spoken to him, and a little bit of warning that she might pass him in a corridor would have been nice.

Or, as the case may be, collide with him. She stifled a groan as she buried her face in her hands, imagining what she must have looked like, sprawled on the floor, scrolls, wand, and limbs everywhere . . .

 _Could have been worse_ , said a voice in her head.

 _Oh, really?_ another voice spoke up, highly sarcastic. _How?_

"Al could've been there," she muttered into her palms.

"Al could have been where?" came a voice from behind her. Rose jumped and whirled, glaring in accusation at her messy-haired cousin. He grinned down at her, his green eyes sparkling.

"Could have been standing right behind me without making his presence known and scared me out of a year of life!" she snapped.

"Now, Rose," Al said, flopping down on the bench beside her. "Let's not exaggerate. Only six months, I'm sure." Rose glared at him, but her cousin was so used to such techniques that they no longer affected him. "So, as a wonderful cousin, I came to ask how your first day of internship went."

Rose rubbed her eyes with the heels of her palms. "Ignoring the part of the day where I ran into Scorpius? Not bad."

"You ran into Scorpius?" Al repeated with a small grin. "I hope no one was hurt."

"No," she said through gritted teeth. "Though I did deliver several dented scrolls to your dad." Al arched an eyebrow at her quizzically.

"Wait, so you –"

"Literally ran into him? Yes." She tried to keep the grimace out of her voice. Al hissed in appreciation.

"Ouch," he said sympathetically. "Sounds –"

"Mortifying?" Rose's voice was muffled once more by her hands over her face.

"Well, 'exciting' was what I was going to say, but sure. Your word works, too." Rose sat up again and fixed her cousin with a look. "Is this the first you've seen him since . . .?"

"Since we left school? Yes," she replied, not meeting his eyes. She never had explained things to him, and she wasn't really in the mood to now. "We'll ignore the question of why you never saw fit, in three years, to mention that Scorpius was training as an Auror –"

"Hey!" Al broke in, his hands out in a gesture of surrender. "I assumed you already knew!"

"And why would you assume that?" she asked, throwing her hands up in frustration. "When we graduated, he was talking teaching!"

"Yeah, but he was assigned to your Dad's squad! I thought for sure . . ." Al trailed away as Rose looked sharply away, a range of emotions fighting for dominance in her head. She shut her eyes against them and shook her head sharply.

"Never mind," she said swiftly, dismissing it. "It doesn't matter."

"I don't suppose he told you that he's getting married?" Al asked, his eyes darkening.

Rose froze, staring at her cousin. She could no longer feel her hands, and she was having some trouble breathing. " _Married?_ " she breathed, completely in shock.

"Well, officially, he's getting engaged," Al clarified. He didn't look happy about it. "They're having a Bonding Ceremony at the end of the summer." He spoke very gently, watching her carefully.

Rose didn't know how to respond. She sat, numb and frozen with shock. Married? Scorpius Malfoy? "I –" she started, not really sure what she planned on saying. "I thought Bondings were really ancient."

"They are," Al said with a scowl. "From what I can get out of him, the whole thing is his family's idea. It's arranged, you see." Rose stiffened, crossing her arms and frowning away toward the roses. She didn't know how much more new information she could handle.

"Arranged?" she repeated carefully. Al nodded, a scowl on his face.

"Apparently, it's tradition for the Malfoy men to be Bonded at the age of twenty and married at 21. Scorpius's got postponed a year so he could finish his Auror training, but there's been a girl picked out for him for eighteen years. Ten years before the big day, when the Malfoy is eleven, there's a Swearing, in which the future bride and groom commit to each other and the marriage, provided that by the time the Bonding is upon them, they're both still unattached." Rose could hardly get her mind around what he was telling her. Scorpius had never mentioned that, not in all the years she'd known him.

"That's – barbaric! I mean, to be sworn to someone else for your whole life, without any say in it . . ." she whispered, pained. Al nodded, a dark look on his face.

"I agree," he said, his voice as dark as his face. "Although, technically, he's still single. He's single right up until the day of the Bonding. He could still call it off."

Rose shook her head, staring out through the maze of thorns and blossoms before her. "He won't," she said quietly, more certain of that fact than she'd been of anything in a long time.

"He might," Al started, but Rose cut him off with a more emphatic shake of her head.

"He won't," she repeated. "You know him, Al. You know he won't. Maybe before this summer, but not now that it's started. If he swore on his eleventh birthday to marry this girl once he turned twenty-one, he'll consider that a binding promise, with or without a special ceremony." Al sighed darkly.

"I don't like it," he said. "I don't think you can reasonably ask two 21-year-olds to say, no, we're never going to find love on our own, so sure, we'll let our families match us up. But I suppose there's not that much we can do about it. Unless . . . " He looked at her sideways. "Whatever happened to the two of you, anyway?"

She shook her head slowly. "Nothing," she said quietly. She wasn't going to give in to his insinuations.

Al was peering at her, one eyebrow arched again. She hated that look. It made him look far too much like his father. "Rose, you haven't spoken to him in three years. You went on a trip around the world to get away from him –"

"It wasn't like that, Al," Rose broke in. Al gave her another look. She could feel herself coloring up again, and cursed her father's genes. She looked away, into the roses. "Nothing _happened_ between us," she said softly. "We just . . . grew apart."

"We'll let that be the answer for now," he said softly after a pause, "and we'll pretend that I believe that best friends of seven years can just grow apart naturally, as you suggest." And before she could shoot him another glare, he had stood, kissing her swiftly on the cheek. "Just came by to see how your first day went. I've got to get back to work."

Rose sat in the garden long after he had Disapparated, until her parents returned from the Ministry and called her in for supper.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

* * *

 

_Rose picked at her food as the never-ending sound of hundreds of students enjoying the Sorting Feast swept over her. She kept her eyes glued firmly on the plate in front of her, completely unable to enjoy herself. She'd made the mistake of looking up once, and the sight of her cousin James sitting two tables away had made her look back down immediately._

_Ravenclaw. Here she sat, the first Weasley in who knew how many generations to be Sorted into a House other than Gryffindor. Glancing sideways, she scowled at Al, who was seated beside her, happily eating roast beef and not seeming to care in the slightest that he hadn't ended up in Gryffindor, like he hadn't heard any of the whispers that had flown around the Hall when_ Harry Potter's _son had been put into_ Ravenclaw _. Of course, the biggest shock of the evening had been when Draco Malfoy's had somehow landed himself there, too._

_Not that she was upset to be there – part of her had really wanted to be in Ravenclaw because it seemed so much less terrifying than being in Gryffindor – but she wasn't at all looking forward to the letter she had to write home tonight._

_On the other side of Al, Scorpius Malfoy was just as withdrawn as Rose, and was eating just as little. Finally, Al noticed – or, more likely, stopped pretending not to notice – his friends' uncharacteristic silences. He sat back on the bench and looked from Rose on his right to Scorpius on his left and back again. Then he sighed._

_"Okay," he said in an undertone to the both of them. "On the train, worry number one was that we wouldn't all be in the same house. We are. And worry number two was that we wouldn't end up where we wanted to be, which, I might remind you, we all admitted was Ravenclaw. So what's up?"  
_

_"I said I wouldn't_ mind _Ravenclaw," Rose corrected in a hiss. "And I never expected to actually end_ up _here!"_

_"Neither did I," added Scorpius in a sullen whisper. "Come on, Al. You heard them when the Hat called this house."_

_"But you said Slytherin was the last place you wanted to be!" Al insisted in Scorpius' direction. "And_ you _were positively terrified of ending up in Gryffindor," he said to Rose. "Are you two telling me that you still thought you'd be put in those Houses?"_

_"Yes!" Rose and Scorpius said at the same time. Al looked back and forth between them, bewildered._

_"May I ask for a clarification of the problem, because at the moment, I'm missing it."_

_"What's my dad gonna say?" Rose and Scorpius spoke once more in unison, sparing each other only the slightest startled glance. Al sighed._

_"Look," he said to Rose. "It could be worse. You could have to tell him you were put in Slytherin." This didn't help; Rose hit him. Rubbing his shoulder with an exasperated glare in her direction, he turned to Scorpius. "You could have to tell your dad you got put in Gryffindor," he said, earning a very fierce glare from the blonde boy. Al sighed again, deeper this time, and turned back to his food. "I give up," he said in great exasperation, and went back to ignoring the both of them._

* * *

Late that night, after her mother and brother had both gone to bed, Rose crept into her dad's study. She'd gotten back from her Tour only three week ago, and her parents had said there was no use in her trying to intern and look for a place of her own until the summer was over. She'd given a few token protests, but a part of her was very glad to not have to move out quite so soon. She'd enjoyed the Tour very much, but she'd missed her family a lot, much more than she'd thought she would.

There was a huge, overstuffed armchair that sat in front of the fire, a faded orange that clashed horribly with everything Weasley. Her mother hated it, which was why it had been relegated to her father's study, but Rose had always loved it. As a little girl, she used to sneak into the study late at night and curl up in that chair and read by the firelight. Her father had always caught her, but he'd never been very convincing in his scolding, and the fact that he'd never told her mother really proved that, at the very least, he didn't care that she was up past bedtime.

This was the chair she curled up in then, closing her eyes as she sank into its familiar embrace. She'd missed this chair.

It didn't take long for her father to appear. He often worked late into the night. She rested her head on the chair's arm as she heard the door open, and held her body still as he entered the room, completely absorbed in the papers he was reading. A small frown was marked between his eyebrows, and he muttered to himself as he crossed the carpet. Rose smiled.

"Hello, Daddy," she said softly. Her father's eyes snapped to hers, but he didn't really seem surprised to see her there.

"Hello, Rosie," he said, crossing the room to stand over her in mock sternness. "Isn't it past your bedtime?" Rose rolled her eyes, grinning.

"Yeah, because at 20, I really have a set bedtime." Her father shrugged as he took a seat on the footstool.

"You do have an early morning tomorrow," he pointed out. Rose shrugged.

"So do you," she said. "I'll get there in time for work." They sat there in the easy and comfortable silence that they had shared countless times before. Then, without really thinking about what she was going to say, Rose opened her mouth. "Dad, why didn't you tell me that Scorpius Malfoy was on your training squad?'

Part of her was surprised that she had asked the question, but another part knew that that particular question was why she had wandered down here tonight in the first place. Her dad's eyes flickered to hers; he was clearly taken aback by the question. His first instinct seemed to be to deny it – in fact, Rose couldn't help but smile at the panicked look on his face. "Relax, Dad, I'm not accusing you of anything," she reassured him. "I'm just curious." He closed his mouth and lost the defensive, panicked look.

"Al told me you two had had a falling out," he said quietly. "I thought it might be easier if I just didn't mention it." Rose was torn between being exasperated at her cousin's foolishness and being touched at her father's sensitivity. She settled on a little of both.

"Al exaggerates," Rose muttered.

"Does he?" her father asked, not teasing or gently poking fun, but with the same mild curiosity she had just exhibited. She looked down at her hands in her lap, playing with the slightly fraying edge of her pajama top.

"We got into a little bit of an argument," she conceded reluctantly. "But that wasn't what –" She broke off with a sigh. "Al may not exaggerate, but he doesn't really know what he's talking about." Her father nodded, rubbing his neck.

"To be honest," he said, "I also didn't mention it at first because I didn't really expect him to last past the first couple weeks. Once he'd proved me wrong, it seemed too late to bring it up. Should I have? Brought it up, I mean?" Rose sighed and looked down at the rich red of the carpet, subconsciously tracing the faded, threadbare design of the arm of the chair.

"I don't know," she said finally. "Might have made running into him today a little less unexpected." Her father didn't seem to be surprised by that piece of information, so Rose was forced to assume he'd already heard. She tried to hide a grimace.

"I guess I assumed you'd already know," he said.

"I thought he was going into teaching," she admitted. Her father nodded.

"That was his cover. He didn't want anyone to know he'd applied to the Auror program if he didn't get in. He needn't have worried, of course." Rose hid a giggle at the disgusted but admiring look on her dad's face.

"Can't imagine you were too pleased with that," she said. He laughed.

"Thought your uncle had lost his mind," he admitted. "And I marched into his office and told him so."

"What did he say?" she asked with a slight smile.

"He told me that there was no earthly reason not to accept him into the program, and then he rather forcefully reminded me that we'd fought a war together to ensure that no one would be judged based on blood or name alone. Said he'd put Scorpius on my squad because he thought it would be good for the both of us." Her father sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And he was right," he said. "I was determined to be completely fair and prove your uncle wrong, but I couldn't. Scorpius is dedicated and talented and hard-working. I may not like his father much, but he has won my respect. He's a good boy, and I've been privileged to be the one to train him."

Rose felt the smallest twinge at her father's words, one she didn't really want to explain or examine. Her father had accepted Scorpius Malfoy. She shook her head sharply. "But you didn't feel that way when I was friends with him, at school. You hated him then." Her father grimaced.

"I hated his father," he corrected gently. "And, yes, it carried over to him a little. But I didn't know then what I know now."

Rose nodded at that, comforted in a twisted way that felt wrong, somehow. But she was determined to let that be the end of the matter. Her father would never have accepted Scorpius three years ago, and that was that.

* * *

_"Rose!" came a voice, echoing across the crowded grounds. The seventeen-year-old Head Girl turned to see her best friend standing in the castle doorway, waving for her attention. She waved in response to let him know he had it. Smiling, he jogged down the steps toward her._

_"What's up?" she asked once he was in earshot, shifting her books and tucking a strand of hair behind her ear._

_"I need to talk to you – privately," he added, glancing around. "Care for a walk around the lake?"_

_"All right," she said, smiling._

_Scorpius was silent for most of the long walk, and it seemed to Rose that he was troubled about something. The late May afternoon was gorgeous, and many students, mostly those who didn't have to study for O.W.L.s or N.E.W.T.s, were taking advantage of the weather. It took them a while to find an isolated spot. "So?" Rose asked him once they had, halfway to the Forbidden Forest._

_"So," he repeated, dragging out the word. Then he ran a hand through his hair and began to pace a little, clearly agitated. Rose frowned, puzzled. "I . . . don't really know how to say this," he finally admitted._

_"Just say it," Rose said, with a little laugh that she hoped disguised the sudden, inexplicable nerves that had come over her. "Surely it can't be so –"_

_"I love you," he said in a rush. She stared at him, mouth open, her sentence dying on her lips. He licked his own lips and swallowed, looking down at his feet. "I'm . . . in love with you," he said in a softer tone._

_Rose felt like she needed to say something, felt an almost desperate need to say something, but had no idea what it should be. "Scorpius . . ." she started, but he shook his head._

_"I'm not – looking for any sort of answer," he said quickly. "Not right now. Don't feel like you have to give me one today. I'm not expecting anything in return. Really, Rose, I'm not." Almost on impulse, it seemed, he came over to her then, and took her limp hand in his, an action he had done countless times before that now gained so much more meaning. Rose was still trying to make her brain form coherent thoughts. "I just . . ." he whispered, looking down at their hands. "I wanted you to know. I've been sitting on it for a while now, because I thought it might be easier, but it felt too much like lying. I just wanted you to know. Your answer can wait." He looked up at her face then, and caught her blue eyes with his gray ones, and she couldn't look away. She couldn't even breathe properly._

_She had to close her eyes. She had to. It was the only way she could – "Scorpius, I – I'm flattered," she whispered. "Really, I am." She risked opening her eyes then. He wasn't looking at her. He was looking deliberately away, a pained smile fixed on his face, as if he knew what was coming, what had to be coming. "I care about you more than anybody in the world," she said desperately. "You have to know that. It's not that I don't care about you." Without changing his expression, he finished the thought._

_"But you don't feel the same way," he said quietly. Looking away, she shook her head. She heard him sigh, long and drawn out._

_"I'm sorry," she whispered, her voice hardly audible._

_"No," he said firmly. "It's okay, Rose. I told you. I didn't expect anything from you. And if you don't feel the same, then you don't. It's not a problem." He looked and sounded as if he was willing himself to believe that. He tried very hard to smile then. "Still friends, then?" he asked. After a slight hesitation, she nodded._

_"Of course," she said around the lump in her throat, and she tried to smile as well, and the both of them tried to pretend like everything really was all right._

_"See you at supper?" Scorpius asked, and Rose nodded. He turned awkwardly and left then, and as soon as he was out of sight, Rose sat down hard in the grass at the lake's edge, shaking. She clenched her fists tightly together in her lap, Scorpius' voice ringing in her ears._ You don't feel the same way . . .

_She sat in the grass for a full hour after that, tears streaming silently down her face as she tried to convince herself that she hadn't just lied to the boy she'd been in love with for most of the past year._

* * *

A week later, Rose was sitting at an outside table of the Leaky Cauldron, waiting for Al. He'd asked her to meet him for lunch when his shift at Mungo's was over, but he seemed to be running late. Rose looked up from her book, scanned the crowds passing by for the tenth time in the past half hour, looking for any sign of her cousin. Seeing none, she sighed and checked her watch. Then, with a shrug of annoyance, she went back to her reading. She'd gotten through another two and a half pages when she felt a presence beside her chair.

"Rose," said a smooth male voice behind her. She jumped and shut the book on her finger in her surprise. Easing her finger from between its pages, praying he hadn't seen, and mentally cursing herself, Rose turned in her chair to squint up at the form of Scorpius Malfoy.

"Scorpius," she said stiffly. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"I'm supposed to be meeting Al for lunch," Scorpius said formally. "He said to meet him here, but I haven't seen any sign of him." Rose narrowed her eyes, her mind already hard at work planning painful torture methods to inflict on her cousin later.

"That's odd," she said slowly, "because Al also told _me_ to meet him here," and she glared in the direction of the hospital where her cousin was currently working.

"Ah," said Scorpius, apparently catching on. He slid into the seat next to Rose. "So, he isn't late, but rather 'late'," he said, punctuating the last word with air quotes. Grimly, Rose nodded.

"My cousin is doing what he does best," Rose said.

" _Meddling,_ " she and Scorpius said in unison, and, for a moment, they were joined together in mutual irritation. But the moment passed all too soon, and the silence that descended on the table was heavy and oppressive. Rose shut her eyes against it, cursing her cousin to high heaven.

"So, how was your first week?" Scorpius asked after a moment.

"Good," she said shortly. "I'm – really enjoying it."

"Good, that's, uh . . . that's good," was his response, and Rose felt a strong urge to _kill_ Al. As if everything that had happened between her and Scorpius three years ago wasn't enough to be hanging between them every time they bumped into one another, she also had, courtesy of Al, encounters like _this_ to deal with. She cast around desperately for something to say. Then she remembered that he was as good as engaged.

"Tell me about your fiancé," she said finally, catching him off guard.

"What?" he asked, sounded stunned.

"Your fiancé," she repeated carefully. "Al said you were getting married."

"Oh, um, yes," he said awkwardly. "Well, actually, I'm getting -- Bonded. The marriage won't happen for another year."

"I thought Bonding Ceremonies took place at age 20," she said coolly. "Shouldn't you have done this last year? And shouldn't it happen on your birthday?" She already knew the answer to those questions, of course. Al had told her, but she couldn't resist asking them pointedly anyway.

"We pushed the ceremony a year so I could finish my training, then pushed it to the end of the summer so she could attend a research trip."

"Almost seems like you're trying to put it off altogether," Rose said, and she knew it was beneath her, this cattiness, but she couldn't stop the words from coming out any more than she could help reveling ever so slightly in his discomfort. "So, tell me about the girl. What's her name?" Rose asked.

"Honoria," he said carefully. "Honoria Ridgeton."

"She's from England?" was the next question.

"Wales," Scorpius answered, watching her somewhat warily.

"Ah, so she didn't go to Hogwarts then."

"No, she was – educated at a small school in Wales," Scorpius said, frowning slightly. "You should meet her though; you'd like her." _I'd_ like _her?!_ Rose thought, suddenly extremely irritated with him.

"It's a wonder I've never heard you mention her before," she said coolly. "I mean, since this has been something you've known about for at least eighteen years, and I've known you ten of those." Scorpius cleared his throat.

"Rose, is there a problem?" he asked, his face set in a hard line. His voice, though, was mostly gentle, and made her feel a little ashamed. She looked away, suddenly wanting to cry. _Stop it_ , she told herself fiercely.

"Sorry," she muttered. "It just . . . it came as a real shock."

"Well, you've been a little out of touch for the past three years," he pointed out. "A few things here and there were bound to escape your notice." Rose had a feeling there was a very carefully hidden jibe in there somewhere, but she really didn't want to look for it.

"This wasn't just the past three years, though, Scorpius," she said, her voice coming out a little strained. She looked up to meet his gaze. "I should have found out from you," she said quietly. "Not Al." He had the grace to look away at that, a little embarrassed. "He wanted to know what had ever happened between – you and me," she said then and immediately regretted it. The silence after her statement grew unbearably heavy and strained, and Rose couldn't quite bring herself to look up at him. "He didn't believe me when I told him nothing had," she said, trying to smile. "Probably what today is all about. You know Al." She glanced up at Scorpius, whose face was solemn, but otherwise entirely unreadable. Rose swallowed. She had no idea what had possessed her to bring this up. Some hidden masochistic tendency, probably.

"You said no, Rose," Scorpius said in response, his voice guarded and quiet and hard. "Very clearly. That's what happened." She met his eyes, then, which was a mistake. Time seemed to freeze. _I wanted this_ , Rose reminded herself fiercely. She had no idea what to say next. Luckily, she didn't have to come up with anything.

"Ah, good! You're both here," came a voice from the street a few paces away. Rose and Scorpius both turned. Al was walking toward them, grinning widely. "Sorry I'm late. Things got backed up at Mungo's." Rose glared at him. Did he really think they'd believe that? "Shall we order, then?"

"Actually, no," Scorpius said quickly, rising. "I don't get a very long lunch break, Al, and I need to be getting back. We'll have to do this some other time." And with a tight smile, he disappeared into the crowd. Rose watched him go with a sinking heart.

"So, what did you two find to talk about?" Al asked a little too innocently as he sat in the seat Scorpius had just vacated. Rose glared at her cousin, disgusted with him. "What?" he asked. She just shook her head and stood, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

She walked away without a word, ignoring her cousin's protests.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

* * *

  _It was darkening by the time she made her way back to Ravenclaw Tower, everything Scorpius had told her still fresh in her mind. She had stayed out by the lake until she was certain she couldn't cry anymore, and then until she was certain all traces of her crying were gone from her face._

_The Common Room was not very full as she slipped in, due to the fact that most Ravenclaws preferred to study in the library. The blue sofas in front of the fire were mercifully deserted. Rose walked over and collapsed onto one, dropping her bag on the floor. She had to come up with a game plan._

_The best plan, of course, would be to pretend that nothing had happened, that Scorpius had never told her what he had. She didn't know if she'd be able to do that, but she knew she had to try. Before this afternoon, she'd been managing her inconvenient infatuation with Scorpius fairly well. She'd been convinced that three things stood in the way of anything substantial happening. The first was herself. The second was her family. And the third was that Scorpius could never see her in_ that _way. It now seemed she was wrong, quite wrong, about that last._

 _But it didn't change the first two. She_ wouldn't _let anything happen_ because _of her family, and because it would all end badly anyway. She_ knew _that. There was no other way for a Weasley and a Malfoy to end. If their clashing personalities didn't pull them apart, their feuding families would, and it wasn't fair to allow a romantic attachment to start knowing it would end badly._

_She had done the right thing. She had. With time, Scorpius would forget about her and find someone else, and be happy._

_"So, has Scorpius told you?" asked her cousin as he plopped down beside her._

_"Has he told me what?" Rose said, irritated, even though she had a pretty good idea to what Al was referring. Of_ course _Scorpius had told him. The two of them were only closer than any two straight guy friends had any right to be._

_"Okay, clearly not, 'cause if he had, you would know what," was Al's muddled response. Rose wasn't in the mood._

_"Al, either make sense or go away. I have exams to study for and so do you," she growled, reaching for her bag. If she expected her foul temper to rub off on Al, she had truly forgotten who she was talking to. Al merely grinned at her._

_"Be grumpy now," he said. "Once Scorpius talks to you, I imagine you won't be able to stop grinning for a month!"_

_And with that uplifting image, he disappeared. Rose sank back into the couch as a few tears slid down her cheeks, proving that she wasn't quite as empty of them as she'd thought._

* * *

That summer was the hardest Rose had ever endured, and not because of the intensity of her internship. She managed to run into Scorpius much more than she would have thought possible when she was so determined to avoid him – a cousin intent on matchmaking saw to that – and things hadn't really gotten much easier. They gradually slipped into some semblance of their old friendship, but things had been done and said that neither could forget, things and words that couldn't be gotten over. She knew she was remembering them, and she knew that Scorpius was remembering them, and that knowledge made true reconciliation impossible.

But Al – who, in his defense, didn't know about those things – was determined to try, and didn't seem to be dissuaded in the least by the fact that both Rose and Scorpius were growing slowly more irritated with him. In that alone, they were united.

Each meeting with Scorpius left Rose in anguish. After an afternoon with him, she usually had to spend an hour or so in complete isolation in order to pull off the impression that she was only glad for Scorpius and not dying a little bit inside as every day brought her closer to the moment when he was promised away to someone else. _I wanted this_ , was her continual reminder.

She had expected three years away from him to have rid her of her feelings, but they clearly hadn't. Because underneath the shame and guilt she felt every time she looked at him and saw the pale, broken shadow of his former self, knowing she had caused that, there was still that quickening of her pulse when he was close to her, and oftentimes goose bumps if his skin should happen to touch hers. This she considered to be the ultimate betrayal. Her mind had been made up; her body was supposed to obey.

She had given him up, she reminded herself firmly, and it had been for the better. She had done what she had done so he could move on. Now she had to accept the fact that he had.

Near the end of the summer, there was a celebration held at the Ministry to honor the new Aurors, and Rose, as the daughter of one of the Head Aurors, was, of course, in attendance. She'd been hoping that the ceremony would help take her mind off of Scorpius, but that had been a foolish hope. Scorpius was one of the new Aurors and had, of course, passed with flying colors, the top of his year. Rose's father was all but bursting with ill-concealed pride. Everyone in the room wanted to talk to her about Scorpius because everyone in the room knew that, while at school, she had been best friends with him.

So Rose was doing what she was quickly becoming very good at – working the floor, full of her father's colleagues, deflecting comments about Scorpius and nodding politely as every wizard made some comment about how they couldn't believe this was Ron's little girl, all grown up. She'd just managed to escape the latest of them when her father approached her. She gravitated toward him with evident relief.

"Rosie," he said, embracing her.

"Good job, Dad," she whispered in his ear. He shrugged the compliment away, but his ears burned Weasley red.

"Rosie, the man of the hour has disappeared, and I don't know how much longer I can stall them," her father confided. She managed to get a laugh out and nod.

"I'll go find Scorpius," she reassured him. Her father smiled gratefully, and Rose slipped away into the hall, leaving the warm laughter of the party behind her, grateful for this momentary reprieve. Pretending to be cheerful when she was anything but was exhausting.

She wandered down the polished hallway, frowning, wondering where Scorpius could have disappeared to. She was about to pull out her wand and resort to a location charm when she heard raised voices coming from a nearby corridor. Her frown deepening, she picked up her pace. Turning the corner, she saw light spilling out of an empty office. The raised voices, she could now tell, belonged to Scorpius and none other than her cousin, and, from the sound of it, they were involved in an intense argument. That in itself was cause for concern. Rose was on the verge of entering the room when the next words out of Al's mouth made her pause.

"I won't excuse you. I _can't_ excuse you!" he was all but growling, and Rose was shocked at the amount of anger in her normally passive cousin's voice. "I can't _believe_ you're really going to marry someone else in two weeks when you're in love with my cousin!" Rose froze at that, her hands suddenly numb.

"I'm not marrying her," Scorpius tried to say, but Al cut him off.

"That's what this means, and you know it, so don't bother debating semantics with me! And I still don't understand how you could _do_ something like this! You are in love with the same person you were in love with three years ago, and it's _not_ Honoria Ridgeton! I _know_ you, so don't try to tell me that's not true! How can you do this to Rose, to Honoria? How is it fair to either of them?" Al demanded. Rose's breath was shallow now, as she waited to hear how Scorpius would respond.

"I am done with this conversation," he said through clenched teeth, and a shadow appeared in the doorway. Rose pressed herself against the wall, her heart pounding at the thought of getting caught now.

"She loves you, Scorpius!" was Al's next declaration, and Rose's breath stopped completely at that. Eyes wide, she stood, unable to move anything but her head. That was moving back and forth in complete panic. This was not about to happen. _No, no, no,_ she thought desperately.

"Rose doesn't love me," Scorpius said after an unbearably long pause. "She showed me that, Al, three years ago, and I can't waste my life on someone who doesn't love me."

"Then why are you Bonding yourself to Honoria?" Al challenged. Rose knew she needed to go in, _now_ , before her cousin could say anything more, do any more damage. She needed to stop him, she knew it. But she couldn't make herself move. "Rose lied to you, Scorpius," Al said, his voice quieter. Rose couldn't believe what she was hearing. "I don't know why, but she did. She loves you; she's loved you for _years_ , I don't even know how long, but I do know that she still does, and that spending time with you this summer has been slowly killing her!"

"Then it's a wonder you've been shoving us together for the past two months!" Scorpius snapped, finally at his breaking point. "Listen up, Al. My life doesn't need your hand in it, and I doubt very much that Rose's does, so do us both a favor and back off!"

"Well, maybe if the two of you could get your lives together on your own, I'd be able to!" Al shouted. Rose couldn't remember the last time she'd been so angry. Al had no right, _no_ right, and he'd just ruined _everything_. And her fury unfroze her, and before Scorpius could respond to the latest jibe, she moved swiftly to the doorframe and knocked.

Both boys jumped and stared at her, panic in their eyes, half at her presence and half at the look on her face. She made no attempt to disguise her fury. Without taking her eyes from her cousin, she said, "Scorpius, my dad is looking for you. Your absence is becoming conspicuous." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scorpius nod. "Al, can I speak to you for a minute?" she asked then, her voice as hard and cold as steel, as Scorpius slipped from the room. She saw Al swallow, and then set his jaw. The moment Scorpius was out of sight, she stopped caring about being calm.

"Rose–" he started, but she wasn't about to let him say anything.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked him, disbelief and anger marking her voice.

"Rose–" he tried again.

"What the _hell_ , Al? 'If the two of you could get your lives together on your own'?" she asked. Al, at least, had the grace to look mildly embarrassed. But he plugged on resolutely.

"Rose, this is wrong, and you know it," he insisted.

"Do you have any idea what you just _did_?" she said, glaring at him.

"Broke up a wedding, with any luck," he muttered darkly, glancing toward the open door. Rose took two steps closer to him and forced him to look down at her, her blue eyes blazing.

"No, you didn't." Al stared down at her, eyes narrowed in bewilderment. Not knowing what she might do, she shoved past him, getting as far away from him as the crowded office would let her. Then she turned sharply back to him, letting her anger out as she did. "You may be a Healer in Training, Al, but you can't fix the world, okay? Not all of it is broken!" she shouted. He crossed his arms.

"Sure looks like it from here," he shot at her.

"Then move out of the way until you get a different point of view," she snapped immediately. "How could you _do_ this?" she demanded

"Do what?" Al asked angrily. "Keep my best friend from marrying someone he doesn't love? Very easily," Al responded. Rose shook her head in disgusted disbelief.

"You haven't kept him from _anything_ ," she hissed, "and arranged marriages aren't about _love_. They haven't been for centuries. They're supposed to be based on respect, for yourself and your partner. _You_ have just made that impossible for him."

"What are you talking about?" Al demanded in angry bewilderment.

"I'm talking about _you_ and your inability to stay out of other people's lives!" she yelled. "You've put him in an impossible position, and you've put me there, too! Did you really think, even for a minute, that Scorpius would ever back out of the promise he made this girl now that he's twenty-one? The literal parameters of that promise don't mean a _thing_ , and you know that," she said, cutting short her cousin's inevitable protestations. "We're talking about _Scorpius_ , who has enough stuck up ideas about chivalry and nobility to be a Gryffindor, and so, in love or not, he would _never_ back out of the Bonding! I told you that _months_ ago!"

She took a moment to cross her arms tightly across her chest, trying to keep them from shaking. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath, then continued. "And the only thing enabling him to be Bonded to her while in love with someone else was the knowledge that that someone else did not love him in return."

"But –"

"As long," she said loudly, speaking over Al's interruption, "as there was no way his feelings could be returned, he could still respect her and himself in their union."

"But you _do_ love him!" Al insisted stubbornly, and Rose's frustration, which had begun to dissipate throughout her explanation, came back in full force.

"That's not the _point_!" she exclaimed loudly.

"But you don't deny it!"

"God, Al, is that what you _want_?" she asked, spreading her arms wide. "For me to admit that I love him? All right! _Yes_! I love him! Okay? I love him! I've loved him for years! Are you happy now?"

The admission took far more out of her than she was expecting. Her anger now completely spent, she sagged against one of the desks, letting it support her weight as tears she couldn't hold back any longer spilled silently down her face. She closed her eyes. She was so tired of all of this.

"He _did_ tell you," Al said softly, finally realizing. "When we were at school. He did tell you how he felt." Rose confirmed this with a nod. "Then why – ?" he asked, and though he didn't elaborate, Rose knew what he was asking.

She laughed bitterly. "You don't know what I did, Al," she said shortly. "I'm lucky he's willing to _talk_ to me. You don't know what I did."

"What did you do?" Al asked softly, keeping his distance across the room. Rose shook her head.

"I broke his heart," she said simply. "I did it cruelly, I did it thoroughly . . . and I did it on purpose." She heard her cousin's intake of breath at that, and sat completely still, not willing to meet his gaze. She went on, answering the question he hadn't asked. "I have never been what my father wanted me to be. I'm a Ravenclaw who'd rather spend a night in the Forbidden Forest without a wand than have to get on a broomstick, and the biggest adventure I've ever had was almost getting strangled by the Venomous Tentacula in third year Herbology. I have spent my life disappointing him. Can you imagine what he would have gone through if I had ever brought a Malfoy home? He would never have forgiven me." She forced herself to meet her cousin's eyes then.

"So . . . you . . . ?" he said quietly, after an unbearably long pause.

"It was the only way," she whispered desperately. "If I proved to him that I wasn't anyone to waste time or love on, he'd eventually move on. It was the only way to ensure that he'd end up happy." Rose's voice broke on the last word, and everything she'd done finally, _finally_ , caught up to her. And then Al was there, with his arms around her.

"Why not just be with him?" Al whispered after a few moments.

"Because it wouldn't have worked!" she said. She pulled away and took a few deep breaths to get her crying under control. "He would have given up everything for me, you know he would have." After a slight hesitation, Al nodded. "I wouldn't have, don't you see that? I wouldn't have given up everything for him. I wasn't brave enough. I didn't love him enough. And even if I had, with time, we would have regretted it. We would have had to sever ties with everyone, and slowly, regretting would have turned to resenting, and it would have pulled us apart."

"But things are different now," Al whispered. Rose shook her head.

"Not different enough. And it's too late. I love him. And that's why I can't be with him, even if he should come after me now. If he left Honoria to pursue me, and I accepted him, the same thing would happen. He'd regret breaking his promise to her for the rest of his life, and he'd eventually start to hate himself. I can't let that happen."

In the silence that followed, Rose could practically hear Al trying to accept all that she'd told him. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. "Rose," he started, but Rose found herself suddenly terrified of what he might find to say.

"They're going to miss you at the party," she said quickly. Al closed his mouth and looked away. Finally, he nodded, and crossed toward the open door. But once at the doorway, he stopped and turned, a frown on his face.

"Rose," he said, and slowly she looked up at him. "I could never have forgiven myself. To see you every day for the rest of your life, alone and unhappy, knowing I could have done something to ease it. I – they teach us in healing that sometimes a broken bone has to be made worse before it can be set to heal. I just – I couldn't stand the idea that you might spend the rest of your life that way."

Rose nodded, blinking back new tears. "I know," she told him. With one last nod, he disappeared from the doorway. Rose paused only to take one last deep breath, and then she, too, stood and left the office, extinguishing the lights as she did. Only, she did not return to the party. Instead, she headed for the nearest exit. She needed to get away. She was almost to the door when a voice stopped her.

"Rose?" Slowly, she turned to face Scorpius Malfoy emerging from the shadowy hall into the moonlight filtering in through the door Rose had opened. Somehow, she wasn't surprised to see him. "Your dad sent me to see if you were all right. When you didn't come back to the party, he was worried."

"I'm fine," she said quietly. "I just . . . I need to go. Tell him I'm not feeling well, that I went home, would you?" she pleaded softly. Scorpius nodded.

"Of course." With a small, sad smile, she stepped over the threshold, the cool night air contrasting sharply with her heated cheeks.

"Rose?" She stopped but did not turn. "Did you mean it?" he asked quietly. "What you said to Al?"

At any other point that summer, the idea that Scorpius Malfoy might overhear an outburst like the one that had just happened would have left Rose numb and terrified. But somehow, sharing everything she had done, saying it all out loud, had left her with a kind of unshakeable calm, a deep sadness that nerves couldn't touch.

"Every word," she whispered. She turned her head then, to see him already returning to the party. "Scorpius?" she called, stopping him. He turned, their eyes meeting as she searched for the right thing to say. "I'm sorry," she finally said.

There were a thousand possible endings to that phrase.

I'm sorry you had to overhear all that.  
I'm sorry my cousin can be an overprotective idiot.  
I'm sorry I wasn't brave enough.  
I'm sorry our families have been at war for years.  
I'm sorry you're getting married.  
I'm sorry I lied to you.  
I'm sorry I broke your heart.  
I'm sorry I fell in love with you in the first place.

But as he nodded and gave her a sad, little smile of his own, Rose knew he had understood what she had meant.

_I'm sorry for everything._

* * *

_"Rose!"_

_Rose heard her name being called even as she stood, finishing her talk with the group of fifth year Ravenclaws on the train. She hoped if she just ignored him, he'd go away. Unfortunately, that technique, though it had worked in the past week and a half, wasn't going to work today. Scorpius Malfoy was determined._

_"Rose!" Rose grimaced slightly as the voice got closer, and then he was beside her. She bid farewell to the girls, who moved away up the train, and turned to him._

_"Yes?" she asked._

_"You disappeared after the meeting," he said, breathing hard. "I couldn't catch you." She took a deep breath, steadying herself. That had been the plan._

_"Do you need something?" she asked. He gave her a strange look._

_"Rose," he said. Then he glanced back and forth, and shook his head. "Come here," he said, taking her by the wrist and leading her away._

_He led her all the way to the empty compartment at the end of the train where they had so recently held their last Head meeting. "Rose," he said again, after they were inside and he had shut the compartment door. "I don't want to bring this up–"_

_"Then you probably shouldn't," she said immediately, pushing past him to gather the things still scattered about the compartment. She heard him sigh behind her._

_"Rose, I've been thinking about our – conversation," he said hesitantly. "And I've realized that – well,_ I _did all the talking. You . . . never really said anything." Rose grimaced. He wasn't supposed to have noticed that._

_"Scorpius, can we please not do this again?" she pleaded. He crossed his arms._

_"I'm sorry," he whispered. "But I have to know."_

_"You_ do _know," she insisted. "You said it yourself." And she moved for the compartment door._

_"Exactly," he said, taking one step and blocking her path. "I said it. You didn't."_

_"But it was still said!" she said, exasperated and close to panicking now. "You have your answer, Scorpius, please let me go."_

_"No," he said stubbornly._

_"Why are you doing this?" she asked, more to stall for time than because she really wanted an answer._

_"Because I didn't expect you to say no," he said. "Everything I'd seen and heard from people . . . Rose, just –" He sighed, frustrated. "It didn't match up. I didn't expect you to say no."_

_"I did," she whispered. He shook his head._

_"No," he said. "You didn't. Say it now, if that's your answer." Her eyes darted from his face to the doors and back._

_"Scorpius," she pleaded._

_"Say it," he said, and his voice was stony now. He knew something was wrong. She set her jaw and glared at him._

_"Let me go," she insisted._

_"Say it!" he demanded, tension building every time she evaded his answer. They were only inches apart now._

_"Let me go!" she demanded, using anger to mask her panic._

_"Tell me you don't love me and I will!" he said angrily, gripping her wrist._

_"Scorpius!"_

_"_ Say it! _" She shut her eyes in pain and anger, steeling herself for what she knew she had to do, knowing at the same time that she would probably hate herself for it for as long as she lived._

_"How could a Weasley ever love a Malfoy?" she spat with all the anger she could muster, wanting to kill herself even as the words came out of her mouth. Scorpius staggered backward like he'd just been slapped. Never, not once since their first meeting on the train, had they ever used their families against one another._

_Rose wanted so badly to look away from the hurt and anger and disgust in his eyes as he stared at her, but she forced herself not to. This was her punishment. With one last, disgusted look at her, he turned on his heel and started to leave. Rose stifled a sob._

_Then, before she had to register what was happening, he was back, grabbing her wrist in a vice-like grip and shoving her into the compartment wall. Her mouth was open in shock for only a moment before, with a growl, his own came down on top of it._

_The kiss was hot and rough and angry, and Rose knew he was using it to punish her, to scream at her, to vent and return all the pain she'd just handed him. It left her weak and shaking, but the look of ill-veiled pain and hatred in his eyes when he pulled away was, if possible, even worse._

_"And that's the last thing I am_ ever _going to say to you," he growled at her. He released her sharply. Taking one step away, he looked her up and down with disgust. "You are_ not _who I thought you were."_

_And then he was gone._


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

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The day of Scorpius' Bonding found Rose on the stone bench in front of her mother's roses. There she sat without moving for most of the day, barely aware of her parents watching her with concern out of the kitchen window.

Her father finally came out as the time to depart grew closer. "Sure you won't go?" he asked, sitting beside her. She didn't look at him as she shook her head.

"I think it will be easier for a lot of people if I'm not there." Her father nodded, frowning, following her gaze out into the roses.

"Rose," he started, then, frowning, closed his mouth and looked away. After a moment he tried again, his voice softer. "Rose . . . you never had to wear red and gold or be able to stay on a broomstick or get into trouble to make me proud of you. I have never, not for an instant, been disappointed in anything you've done, and if you want proof of that, ask anyone I work with. They've been wanting you to fail something for years, so that, for one day, they wouldn't have to listen to me talk about my daughter, top of her class, Prefect, Head Girl. The only thing you ever had to do to make me proud of you was be my daughter and be happy." Rose found herself suddenly blinking back tears. Slowly, she turned her head and met his gaze. She didn't need to ask how he knew. He smiled sadly at her. "How long have you loved him?"

"I don't know," she whispered. "Forever, maybe." He put an arm around her, and she leaned into his embrace.

"It's never too late, Rosie," he said. Rose sadly shook her head.

"No, Daddy," she whispered. "Sometimes it is too late." Her father sighed.

"You're right," he said. Rose looked at him. "It's too late the minute he says 'I do'," he said seriously. Then he kissed Rose on the forehead and left. A few moments later, Rose heard the crack of Disapparition, and knew she was alone.

A breeze blew through the garden then, playing with the late blossoms, wafting their scent over her. Rose closed her eyes against more tears, tired of scolding herself, of reminding herself yet again that she'd made this choice, that it had been, and still was, the right one. The breeze blew over her again, suddenly not so warm as it had been moments ago. She tilted her face into the wind to let the air dry the wetness on her cheeks. With a sigh, she shivered and opened her eyes.

The immense sadness that she had felt at the Auror party had, over the last few days, settled as a weight in her chest that she knew she would probably never shed. As she sat there, she finally allowed herself to examine it. And she felt – regret, regret for so many things. There were so many things she should have done differently . . .

But she hadn't, and that was that. She pushed the weight down with another sigh, not to try and dispel it, just to bury it slightly. It would become easier to bear in time, of that she was certain. And she was willing to wait, and determined to live her life in spite of that weight.

She had no idea how long she sat on that bench, watching her mother's roses dancing in the wind. The sun slowly made its way across the sky, slowly turning it from blue to gold to crimson as the day inched toward twilight.

"Your father said I might find you here."

The familiar voice broke the silence. Rose turned slowly in place, the hint of a frown between her eyes as she squinted slightly, matching the silhouette to the voice, not quite willing to believe what her ears and eyes were telling her.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, her voice hardly more than a whisper.

"At the moment?" he asked. "Standing in your garden, waiting to be invited to sit down." Rose closed her eyes and shook her head.

"You're supposed to be getting Bonded," she said.

Slowly, he came toward her, and she turned her back against his approach. "Well," he said slowly as he sat beside her, facing the opposite direction. She stiffened against the goose bumps that erupted on her left side, betrayed yet again by her body's reaction to his proximity. "That didn't end up working out quite as was originally planned."

Rose shook her head against his words, her head reeling. This wasn't how it was supposed to happen. He wasn't supposed to make her do this again –

"I got jilted," he said heavily. It took a moment for his words to sink in. Frowning, she turned her head to look at him. He was looking innocently and resolutely forward, a pseudo-regretful look on his face. But as her eyes narrowed, the corner of his mouth betrayed him.

" _You_ got jilted?" she repeated. He glanced sideways at her, and took in both her raised eyebrow and the disbelief in her voice.

"I did!" he insisted, crossing his arms over his chest defensively. Her gaze didn't waver for an instant. "Well, I didn't say it wasn't a carefully planned and agreed-upon jilting," he finally admitted. Shaking her head in slight disbelief, she turned back to the roses, not wanting to think about the implications of what he was saying. "Merlin, but she was amazing," he said, turning back to the house. Frowning in confusion, Rose turned once more to him, fully aware that she was probably responding just the way he wanted. Noting her look, he met her gaze. "She was," he said. "Impressive, really. I couldn't have done it half so well."

"Done _what_?" Rose asked, exasperated. Scorpius smiled somewhat smugly and turned back to face the house. Inwardly, Rose cursed herself for taking the bait.

"I told you," he said. "I got jilted. In rather a spectacular manner. They'll be talking about it for years, I expect." Rose strongly considered smacking him, an urge she hadn't had for more than three years. She settled for growling his name.

"Scorpius," she warned. He laughed, leaning back, grasping the front of the stone bench for balance. She couldn't help but notice that he looked and seemed free in a way he hadn't since that horrible conversation by the lake. The change in him took her breath away, and seemed to be gradually working a change in her, as well.

"About half an hour before the ceremony, she came over to see me," he said. "Said she needed to speak to me privately. So she led me away and said, 'Scorpius, is this really what you want?' Didn't even give me a chance to answer. She said if it was what I wanted, then we'd go and get Bonded and she'd never mention it again, but that she didn't think it was what I wanted, and she knew it wasn't what she wanted. I asked what she was saying, and she answered that she was saying that she didn't love me, and that since I didn't love her, either, our getting married was all a bit wrong."

Scorpius shifted on the bench, glancing sideways to make sure Rose was hanging on his every word. She continued to look forward into the roses. When the silence had gone on too long for her liking, she flicked her eyes to his and said, "And?"

Scorpius smiled. "And she was right," he said. "I ttried to tell her that I'd made a promise, but thankfully she stopped me before I had to go too far with that line. She said keeping a promise wasn't enough to build a marriage on, not for her, though she appreciated the gesture. And then she asked if I could really say it was enough for me." Scorpius looked down at the grass, a soft smile playing on his lips. "I couldn't, of course," he said. "Which she knew. So I relented without much protest and asked her for the plan. She grinned and told me to go ahead with things normally, and when the train came off the tracks, to just play along."

Scorpius smiled as he remembered. Rose snuck a glance at him, her heart pounding in her throat. She swallowed hard, forcing her gaze away from him. "Why couldn't you just tell your families that you wanted to call it off?" she asked quietly, looking down at her fingers twined tightly together in her lap. Scorpius let out a snort of laughter.

" _That_ would have gone over well," he said. "No, Rose, it's like Honoria said. This would only work if one of us got jilted, and it probably wouldn't have worked if it had been her. People just think it's cruel if the groom leaves the bride, even at a Bonding. So it had to be her. It was an amazing performance. We were all in the chapel, and her father escorted her over to the alter, where I was with the officiator and all the necessary paraphernalia. And our hands were clasped, her right in my left, over a basin of water, and the officiator had started the ceremony. Well, she let him get about ten seconds into his muffled intonations before she stiffened and snatched her hand away from mine. Everyone froze, and she choked out that she couldn't do this, and turned and fled."

Rose watched the progress that one deep red rose made, bobbing up and down in the soft breeze, fully aware that Scorpius was staring at her. She was determined not to take the bait again. Letting out a low chuckle, he cheated, reaching over and brushing his fingers against the skin of her arm. She jerked back, her breath catching in her throat, and her eyes inadvertently met his. "I caught up with her outside the chapel," he whispered. "I thanked her for doing what I was too afraid to do, and I let her go. My mother sent me home. I came here. And that's the story."

 _He is far too close_ , was all Rose could think. His proximity was keeping her from being able to think straight. She could count every eyelash, see every speck of blue in his gray eyes. And his hand was still on her arm. She closed her eyes and forced her mind to process what he was telling her. "But what are you doing _here_ , Scorpius?" she asked.

"You always used to do that," he said cryptically. "Used to drive me crazy because I could never figure out why."

"What?" she breathed, opening her eyes, puzzled. The corner of his mouth rose.

"Ask questions you already know the answer to," he whispered, inching his head closer to hers. She couldn't breathe. "Luckily, I know how to punish you."

"Do you?" she breathed. He nodded.

"I'm not going to answer your question."

And the next thing she knew, his lips were on hers, one of his hands caressing her cheek, the other pressed against the small of her back. She responded immediately, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing herself closer to him.

It was everything she'd ever wanted a kiss with Scorpius to be, and it was so vastly different from the first kiss she'd shared with him. His lips teased hers, first gently, then more insistently, and he seemed to be saying that everything she'd done, everything they'd been through, was forgiven and forgotten.

The kiss ended when the both of them tasted salt. As Scorpius pulled away from her, Rose realized slowly that she was crying. With a tender smile on his face, Scorpius gently wiped her tears away with the pads of his thumbs. She reached up and caught one of his hands, threading her fingers through his own.

"I never stopped loving you, you know," he whispered. Her eyes fluttered closed as his words washed over her. "Even though I was so _angry_ with you, and I wanted to _hate_ you . . . I couldn't. And it was so _frustrating_ because I couldn't understand why. But after hearing everything you said to Al, I finally did. And I knew you were right, all along." Rose shook her head slightly. "But I know it doesn't matter anymore, and so now I'm going to ask you straight out something I should have asked you ages ago." Rose opened her eyes and looked into his. "Rose Weasley, do you love me?" he whispered.

"You shouldn't do that, you know," Rose said. He looked down at her, puzzled.

"What?"

Rose smiled. "Ask questions you already know the answer to." And before he could say another word, she reached up and pulled his face down to hers.

When the Weasleys returned home not long after that, neither of them was overly surprised to find Scorpius Malfoy sitting on a low stone bench in their rose garden with their daughter, her head on his shoulder and his arm wrapped protectively around her.

Unaware of her parents' approving presence, Rose sat with Scorpius as night descended around them, content never to move. And as the roses' colors darkened as the sun left them, Rose remembered a story her father had told her over and over, at her insistence.

_I want her to stand as proof that the best and most beautiful things in the world come nestled among thorns._

Rose smiled as she recalled her mother's words. She'd finally found her way through the thorns.

* * *

 

_Fin_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading. Please review.


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